04-11-06

Media Release

OSU Professor, Author Receives Prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Tracy Daugherty, a noted author and professor of English at Oregon State University, has received a prestigious 2006 Guggenheim Fellowship to pursue his writing.

Daugherty, who has received three Oregon Book Awards for his writing, is one of just 27 fiction writers and poets throughout the nation honored with a Guggenheim Fellowship this year. He chairs the Department of English at OSU.

"I'm honored that the fellowship recognizes a body of work from the past," Daugherty said, "and I hope to live up to the foundation's faith that its fellows hold promise for the future."

Daugherty plans to use the award to complete a lengthy book project he has been working on.

Last year, Daugherty won his third Oregon Book Award with "Axeman's Jazz," the story of a woman who returns to her childhood home. He also won the fiction award for "What Falls Away" in 1997, and the 2003 award for short stories for "It Takes a Worried Man."

A versatile writer, Daugherty has penned four novels, three short story collections and a book of essays. His work regularly appears in numerous magazines including The New Yorker, The Gettysburg Review, and The Southern Review.

He previously received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Daugherty helped establish a master of fine arts program at OSU in creative writing, and students in the program are building an impressive record of success. Among the program's graduates is Scott Nadelson, who won an Oregon Book Award in 2005.